Postal addresses for homeless to beat Catch 22

People without a permanent address have difficulty accessing social servicesYUI MOK/PA

An English council is considering allowing homeless people to use empty properties as a postal address to prevent them from being unable to access public services.

Mail sent to an allocated postal address would be redirected to wherever the person might be staying — or even to somewhere that they could visit to collect their post.

Chris Hildrey, an architect, devised the idea to solve a “Catch 22” problem faced by homeless people: that by losing access to a permanent postal address they risk being cut off from banking, health services and other support.

Under his plan, local authorities would supply homeless people in their area with individual addresses of vacant residential properties, whether they were owned privately or by public bodies. Authorities already have…